Price Controls Are Exacerbating the Damage of Hurricane Sandy

Price controls are a spectacularly foolish idea, and that’s true whether they’re imposed by thugs such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services.

That’s why one of the 20th Century’s economic heroes is Ludwig Erhard, who unleashed the post-war German miracle by abolishing the price controls imposed by the allied powers.

Notwithstanding all this history, politicians oftentimes can’t resist doing the wrong thing, as you can see from this new Reason TV video.

A simple explanation for the stupidity of politicians is that there are more consumers than gas station owners. But I also think this is an example of their illiteracy about what Bastiat referred to as the seen and the unseen.

I hope you’re familiar with Reason TV, by the way. If not, you should peruse the great work they do. Some of my favorites include:

• Featuring Andrew Ferguson on the parasite economy of Washington, DC.
• Contemplating the absurdity of anti-obesity campaigns from the compulsive big spenders in government.
• Exploring the evil of Communism.
• The fight to break up the failed government school monopoly, over the objection of a teacher unions and a morally corrupt “civil rights” establishment.
• A much-needed victory over tyrannical thugs at the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Exposing bloated bureaucracy in California.
• A case study showing why the so-called stimulus was a wasteful failure.
• The despicable impact of urban renewal.
• Victory over revenue cameras installed by greedy local governments.
• Singing about the brutal War on Drugs.
• Why statists hate the idea of private money.
• High-speed rail and other boondoggles.
• The inspirational life of Walter Williams.
• Hillary Clinton’s economic illiteracy.
• On pilgrims and property rights.
• Richard Epstein discusses his former colleague, Barack Obama.
• How Obama resuscitated libertarianism.
• A silver lining from Hurricane Katrina.
• The filming of Atlas Shrugged.
• Why the Terminator failed as Governor.

And if you enjoy humor, here are some more great videos from Reason TV:

• Mocking Ms. Fluke, the 30-year old upper-middle-class student who wants the rest of us to subsidize her birth control.
• Merry Christmas from the Transportation Security Administration.
• Fun with the TSA the other 364 days of the year.
• A touching farewell to the 100-watt light bulb.
• A nanny-of-the-month contest.

Feel free to share these examples with friends and colleagues.

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Just in Case You Need another Argument against Gun Control, Contemplate the Social Chaos and Government Incompetence Following Hurricane Sandy

After riots swept parts of the United Kingdom last year, I wrote about the moral argument for gun ownership. Simply stated, it is wrong to disarm law-abiding people, particularly when there is a risk of societal breakdown.

The same argument is equally applicable in the areas ravaged by the recent storm to hit the northeastern United States. As you can see from this report in the New York Post, the government is failing in its responsibility to provide law and order.

Hardened New Yorkers are ready to battle lowlife criminals to protect their homes and stores in storm-ravaged areas plagued by looting and break-ins. In Coney Island, several residents were loading up their guns, sharpening their machetes and brandishing other deadly weapons. Jacinto Gonzalez, 42, picked up a baseball bat and stood guard outside his two-story rowhouse on West 27th Street near Neptune Avenue with his family. Another Coney Island resident, Roberto Aviles, brandishing a rusty 3-foot machete and warning he has a gun, who has lived in Coney Island since 1995 with his wife, says he’s ready to take on phony burglars posing as Con Ed workers. “I’m prepared inside here,” the 76-year-old Aviles said, showing off his rusted, three-foot machete and warning he had a gun. Chris Lane, a 50-year-old resident of the Coney Island Houses, put together a small arsenal with his double pump action gun.

And here’s some coverage from the United Kingdom

…residents of the Rockaways in Queens continued to struggle without power, heat or food for a sixth day as their neighborhood slowly descended into chaos. ‘It’s chaos; it’s pandemonium out here,’ said Chris Damon, who had been waiting for 3.5 hours at the site and had circled the block five times. “It seems like nobody has any answers.” Added Damon: ‘I feel like a victim of Hurricane Katrina. I never thought it could happen here in New York, but it’s happened. ‘With little police presence on the storm-ravaged streets, many residents of the peninsula have been forced to take their protection into their own hands, arming themselves with guns, baseball bats and even bows and arrows to ward off thugs seeking to loot their homes. …’We booby-trapped our door and keep a baseball bat beside our bed,’ Danielle Harris, 34, told the New York Daily News. The woman added that she has been hearing gunshots likely fired in the nearby housing project for three nights in a row. Meanwhile, local surfer Keone Singlehurst said that he stockpiled knives, a machete and a bow and arrow.

Now ask yourself a basic question: Is it better to be armed with a baseball bat or a gun?

Last but not least, here’s a picture that was widely circulated last decade, presumably after a storm like Katrina. It’s amusing, but it also makes me very proud of the American spirit.

These guys were having fun, but they also made an important statement. Ask yourself another question: If you were a low-life thug, would you try to rob that neighborhood?

P.S. You can  see some amusing pro-Second Amendment posters here, here, here, here, and here. And some amusing images of t-shirts and bumper stickers on gun control here, here, and here.

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